Jumping for Joy Over Jellybeans

For decades jellybeans had just a few flavors and colors often hard to distinguish between each other. But they contained fruit, mint and spiced flavors that made them favorites for kids of all ages. Jellybeans also became a favorite among the health conscious because jellybeans, along with red licorice, remain a sweet treat that contain no fat. Jellybeans still have calories, but you can pop them in your mouth and chew away without the guilt that may come with chocolate or other high-fat snacks.

Then came the novelty approach that changed the entire jellybean industry. Flavors stretched from once limited choices and colors to a variety of different tastes, including tropical fruit, berry, soft drinks and even popcorn. Natural true-to-life flavorings were behind the idea of the Jelly Belly from a Los Angeles distributor in the 1970s. It took awhile, but soon everyone in the country, and the world, couldn’t gobble down enough Jelly Belly flavors, such as cream soda, tangerine, root beer and green apple among the 50 different and tasty flavors. Read more . . .

Axing Taxes

Doug Guetzloe has led his grassroots organization, Ax the Tax, to numerous victories over wasteful government spending through the defeat of unnecessary tax proposals. He formed a nationwide alliance with anti-tax supporters, but also gained political enemies who tried to silence him along the way, including sending him to jail for the petty offense of not providing a disclaimer on a political mailer. Guetzloe is the only person in America “sentenced to incarceration due to missing seven words on a flier.” And the sentence occurred after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a disclaimer was unconstitutional.

Guetzloe anticipated opposition to his political views and anti-tax campaigns, but never imagined being jailed on his First Amendment rights. It was not the seven words missing on a political flier that irked Guetzloe’s enemies and resulted in an unusually harsh jail sentence for something so trivial. It was Guetzloe himself who annoyed the speech police. The underhanded attacks on him have sometimes backfired. A car identical to his went up in flames one night in front of his house. But that attempt to silence him led to the conviction of a high-ranking Florida official for shady dealings with a casino. In another case, jurors took 30 minutes to vindicate him following a phony theft charge.

Little did special interests realize the indomitable spirit they created when Guetzloe stepped forward in 1982 to form Ax the Tax Read More